Richard Bishop
Courtesy of Western Regional Archives
FOCUS
General Studies
ROLE
Student
ATTENDANCE
1951 - 1953
BIRTH
1928-06-07
Richard was a student at the college from the summer of 1951 to fall of 1953.
Him and his wife, Mary Alice, attended together. He mentioned in a letter to the college that he didn't like the living conditions and if they were to return, they would want to live and work outside of the college grounds. He did return for a summer session in 1953 but sent letters in 1951 stating the conditions that were unsuitable to him.
Relationships
Wife: Fellow BMC student, Mary Bishop
Black Mountain College Project
Mary Emma Harris interviewed Richard in 1999 and the transcript is available from Appalachian State University under The Mary Emma Harris and Black Mountain College Project, Inc. Oral History collection.
Topics: Hearing about BMC and reasons for enrolling – interested in BMC as community of scholars – trips back and forth to BMC andmarriage to Mary Bishop – college farm – BMC friends – graduation process – architecture with Paul Williams – Joel Oppenheimer – return to University of Chicago – move to Vermont – BMC failure to attract students – post BMC professional work
Courses Taken
No course cards from 1951
Summer Session 1953: Painting (Vicente), Drawing (Vicente)
Author
Amanda Hartman
Amanda Hartman is the creator of BMC Yearbook, serving as the lead director, engineer, and researcher. She holds a MLIS in archive/ collections management, MA in art/ museum education, and BA in design. After working in museums and archives for a decade, she made the transition to tech and is now a software developer specializing in applications for museums, archives, and higher education.
Her interest in Black Mountain College began while working as a digital archivist with the Asheville Art Museum's BMC archive collection. She transcribed and digitized over 1500 documents created by the college. While working closely with these archives, she began independent research on the interracial program and Negro Week activities BMC, writing biographies of lesser known students and staff members. That research transformed into this BMC Yearbook project.
